Pablo Picasso

 Marlborough Fine Arts, Ltd., London

Acquired from the above in 1972

Avignon, Palais de Papes, Pablo Picasso, 1970, no. 44, illustrated in the catalogue

New York, Marlborough Gallery & Saidenberg Gallery, Homage to Picasso for his 90^th Birthday, 1971, no. 111, illustrated in the catalogue

Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Oeuvres de 1969, vol. 31, Paris, 1976, no. 559, illustrated pl. 179

Rafael Alberti, A Year of Picasso, Paintings: 1969, New York, 1971, no. 151, illustrated p. 148

 The Picasso Project, ed., Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: The Sixties III 1968-1969, San Francisco, 2003, no. 69-566, illustrated p. 293

Very good condition over all. The sheet has darkened with time. There is a small tear extending from the top edge to the top of the male figure's hat. There is a dot-size accretion on the female figure's right buttock, and a couple of dots of white discoloration on the sheet. The edges of the sheet are naturally jagged and uneven. There is a V-shaped crease through the proper-right foot of the female figure. Over all, the medium is bright and well-preserved, and the sheet is in good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This lascivious voyeur, savoring the spectacle of the nude female figure, belongs to a series of works from the late 1960s that are understood to be thinly-veiled references to Picasso and his wife, Jacqueline.  The present composition belongs to a series of sexualized visual exchanges between a hatted man and nude women, and it is by far the most erotically-charged, with the couple reciprocating each other's gaze.  The contortions of the model, whose facial features resemble those of Jacqueline, call to mind some of Picasso's most sensually explicit depictions of the voluptuous Marie-Thérèse from the 1930s.  In this later work, though, a male figure has entered the composition, whose physical proximity to the nude could be interpreted as the 88-year-old Picasso himself reclaiming the sexual stamina of his youth.

Themes of sex and passion would appear in many guises throughout Picasso's final years, such as the virile musketeers and pipe-smoking brigadiers entangled in romantic encounters with women, or the relationship between the painter and his model as depicted in the studio.  The artist's choice of an brothel theme here reflects his life-long admiration of the works of Degas, whose scenes of maisons closes were a potent source of inspiration for Picasso's art (fig. 1).